MustVas User Guide

Welcome to MustVas ✋

Hello, fellow TAs! You're about to embark on a journey that will revolutionise the way you manage your class. MustVas isn't just a tool; it's your new teaching partner designed to streamline your workflow so you can focus on what truly matters — educating and inspiring your students.

What is MustVas?

MustVas is a desktop app designed to help fellow Teaching Assistants (TAs) manage tutorial contacts. Its key features include creating and selecting classes, adding students' contacts, and tracking their attendance. It is optimized for use via a Command Line Interface (CLI) while still having the benefits of a Graphical User Interface (GUI). If you can type fast, MustVas can get your contact management tasks done faster than traditional GUI apps.

What can you do with MustVas?

• Class Management: Organise and oversee your students across various classes.
• Attendance Management: Efficiently maintain your students' attendance records with ease.

Target Users

Having been built for TAs by TAs, MustVas is specifically designed for Teaching Assistants (TAs) who are looking for an efficient way to manage their tutorial responsibilities and student interactions.

Purpose of this User Guide

In this User Guide, you will be learning key tips and tricks to make your experience with MustVas useful and handy. This User Guide will cover the main features of the app and provide you with clear instructions on how to effectively utilize our product with relevant examples to get you started! By following these instructions, you can maximize your understanding and proficiency of using our product to its fullest potential. Whether you're a novice or an experienced user, this guide offers step-by-step instructions, clarifications, and best practices to enhance your overall experience. We hope that MustVas's user guide will provide a new and better way for you to manage your students in the long run.

How can you use this guide?

You may first want to read through our glossary to have a better understanding of terms that you might be unfamiliar with. For more information on MustVas' features, simply navigate to our features section for a thorough read through, or click on a specific section to review in our Table of Contents. Do keep a lookout for the frequently asked questions down below which may help you address some basic common questions! Lastly, our command summary will be useful as a reference for the key command prompts to use in MustVas.

NOTE: Users who are not familiar with using a CLI need not fret. Our commands have been specifically catered to a beginner's use - they are simple and easy to learn! Assistance is also provided automatically whenever there is an invalid command.

Table Of Contents

1. Quick Start
2. Features
   • Help
   • Create class
   • Remove class
   • View classes
   • Select class
     • Add student
     • Delete student
     • Edit student
     • Add attendance
     • Delete attendance
     • Edit attendance
     • Add/Remove/Edit description
     • List
     • Find
     • Clear
   • Exit
3. Saving the data
4. Editing the data file
5. Coming Soon...
6. Frequently Asked Questions
7. Known Issues
8. Command Summary
9. Glossary

Quick start

1. Ensure you have Java 11 or above installed in your Computer.

2. Download the latest MustVas.jar from here.

3. Copy the MustVas.jar file into a new folder, MyMustVas and save it under your Documents.

4. Run the program.

   • 4a. [For Mac Users] Open a new command terminal and make sure that you are in the correct directory where MustVas.jar is in. You may use cd to navigate into the correct folder, and use the ls command to check that your jar file is actually there. Copy and paste this command java -jar MustVas.jar into your terminal.
     See our Terminal guide below.
     

   • 4b. [For Windows Users] Open a new command prompt and make sure that you are in the correct directory where MustVas.jar is in. You may use cd to navigate into the correct folder, and use the dir command to check that your jar file is actually there. Copy and paste this command java -jar MustVas.jar into your command prompt.
     See our Command Prompt guide below.
     

5. An interface similar to the below should appear in a few seconds.
   

6. Type the command in the command box and press Enter to execute it. e.g. typing help and pressing Enter will open the help window.
   Some example commands you can try:

   • view : Lists all classes to select from.

   • create c/CS2101 : Creates a class with course code CS2101 in the Class Book.

   • select 1 : Selects the specified class of index 1 from the class list.

   • add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com s/A0251980B : Adds a student named John Doe to the Student Book.

   • adda ar/01-01-2024 : Adds an attendance record with the date 01-01-2024 and a default status 1 to all the existing students.

   • edita 1 ar/01-01-2024 st/0 : Edits the status of the attendance record with the date 01-01-2024 of the first student to 0 (Absent).

   • dela ar/01-01-2024 : Deletes all the attendance record with the date 01-01-2024 from all the students.

   • delete 1 : Deletes the 1st contact shown in the current list.

   • clear : Deletes all contacts.

   • exit : Exits the app.

7. Refer to the Features below for details of each command.

Features

[!WARNING] ⚠️ Caution: Please be cautious regarding the use of prefixes within another prefix. The system will recognize all prefixes. For instance, in the command edit 1 desc/"I loves s/n" p/99998888, the user intended to include s/n in the description. However, the system will interpret it as a prefix.

Viewing help: help

Shows a message with a link to our help page.

Format: help

Creating a class: create

Creates a new class.

Format: create c/CLASS_NAME

• This automatically selects the class you created, so you can modify the class immediately!
• .\data\classbook\CS2101.json in the bottom left corner indicates the current class file open in the app.

Examples:

• create c/CS2101: Creates a class with course code 'CS2101'.
• create c/CS2103T: Creates a class with course code 'CS2103T'.

Removing a class: rm

Removes the specified class from the ClassBook, and deletes all students in the class.

Format: rm INDEX

• Deletes the class at the specified INDEX.

• Removes the class from your ClassBook and entire StudentBook from that class as well, [JAR file location]/data/classbook/[ClassName].json will be simultaneously deleted.
• Any classes that are currently selected will be unselected, in order to prevent any accidental modification to your data.
• .\No class selected! will be displayed on the bottom left.

Viewing the classes: view

Shows list of classes in result display.

• The index number shown in the displayed class list is used for Remove and Select (e.g. Use index 1 for CS2103)

Selecting a class to view: select

Shows the list of all students in the selected class. Allows you to modify and view the class.

Format: select INDEX

• Selects the class at the specified INDEX. This will show you students in the class.

• After selecting a class, you are now able to create, update, and access your students information!

• The subsequent features (i.e. add, delete, edit, adda, dela, edita, description, list, find, clear) are to be used after selecting a class.

• In the bottom left corner, you will see the current class file open. In this case, it's .\data\classbook\CS2103.json

• The file will always be named in the format CLASS_NAME.json

Working with your class

Adding a student: add

Adds a student to the StudentBook.

Format: add n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL s/STUDENT_ID [desc/DESCRIPTION]

• STUDENT_ID must begin with A, followed by 7 digits, and end with a capital letter. The last letter will automatically become capitalised.
• PHONE_NUMBER must range from 80000000 to 99999999.
• There should not be any duplicate PHONE_NUMBER, EMAIL or STUDENT_ID.
• NAME only accepts alphanumerical characters and whitespace (i.e. non-alphanumeric characters such as '/', '-', '$' are not accepted)
• The newly added student will be automatically positioned alphabetically by name.
• The description field is optional. You may write any description for the new student. However, only one description is allowed. The old description will be replaced with the new description when editing or adding a new description when one already exists.
• If there are existing attendance records allocated to the existing students, the newly added student will have a default status of '2' (meaning Valid Reason) for these existing attendance records. Please refer to the image below for illustration.

• You may see our attendance features below for more information.

Examples:

• add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@gmail.com s/A0251980B: Adds a new student.
• add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@gmail.com s/A0251980B desc/Enjoy coding: Adds a new student with a description.

Deleting a student: delete

Deletes the specified student from the StudentBook.

Format: delete INDEX

• Deletes the student at the specified INDEX.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed student list.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​

Examples:

• list followed by delete 2: Deletes the 2nd person in the StudentBook.
• find Betsy followed by delete 1: Deletes the 1st student in the results of the find command.

Editing a student: edit

Edits an existing student in the StudentBook.

Format: edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE_NUMBER] [e/EMAIL] [s/STUDENT_ID] [desc/DESCRIPTION]

• Edits the student at the specified INDEX. The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed student list. The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
• At least one of the optional fields must be provided.
• Existing values will be updated to the input values.
• If the input values for PHONE_NUMBER, EMAIL and STUDENT_ID already exist (including the target user), the command will be rejected.
• The edit function does not allow the removal of a description, only updates to it. (i.e. If description is edited in this manner desc/ in an attempt to remove the existing description, it will not work. Use description to remove existing description.)

Examples:

• edit 1 p/91234567 e/johndoe@example.com: Edits the phone number and email of the 1st person to be 91234567 and johndoe@example.com respectively.
• edit 2 n/Betsy Crower: Edits the name of the 2nd person to be Betsy Crower.

Adding an attendance record: adda

Add an attendance record to all existing students in the StudentBook.

Format: adda ar/DATE

• The format for DATE is dd-MM-yyyy.
• The entered date, DATE, must not exist in any of the student's existing list of attendance dates.
• The newly added attendance record will be automatically sorted based on the date.
• The default value for status is '1' for 'Present'.
• If a new student has been added and there are existing attendance record, using the adda command will produce a default status value of '2' for 'Valid Reason'.

Examples:

• adda ar/01-01-2024: All the existing students will have a newly added attendance with date 01-01-2024 and a default status 1.

Editing an attendance for any number of students: edita

Edits the existing attendance record in the student's list of attendance in the StudentBook. Any number of students can be edited in one go.

Format: edita INDEX1, INDEX2, …​ ar/DATE st/STATUS

• The format for DATE is dd-MM-yyyy.
• Edits the student at the specified INDEX(S). The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed student list. The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​, up to the size of the class.
• The command requires at least one index to be present at a time, though multiple indexes is also allowed, the latter of which needs to be separated by commas.
• All the selected student will have their status of the selected attendance date, DATE, to be reflected to STATUS
  • The entered date, DATE, must exist in the student's existing list of attendance dates.

Examples:

• edita 1 ar/01-01-2024 st/2: Edits the attendance status of the 1st student for 01-01-2024 to 2, indicating absence with a valid reason.
• edita 2, 3 ar/01-01-2024 st/0: Edits the attendance status of the 2nd and 3rd student for 01-01-2024 to 0, indicating absence.

Deleting an attendance record: dela

Deletes the specified attendance date from all the student's list of attendance records in StudentBook.

Format: dela ar/DATE

• The format for DATE is dd-MM-yyyy.
• The entered date, DATE, must exist in the student's existing list of attendance dates.
• Deletes the specified date, DATE from all the student's list of attendance records.

Examples:

• dela ar/02-02-2024: Deletes the attendance record, 02-02-2024, from all students' existing list of attendance records.

Adding/Removing/Editing a description: description

Adds a description to the selected student or Updates an already existing description of the selected student with the given description.

Format: description INDEX desc/DESCRIPTION

• Only one description is allowed. The old description will be replaced with the new description (i.e., when we add/edit a description when one already exists.)
• Can use special characters. To accommodate for adding tele handles, percentages/grades, dates etc.

Examples:

• description 1 desc/Loves coding: Adds/Edits a description Loves coding to first student on the list.
• description 2 desc/Absent on 29/04/2023 due to Case Competition: Adds/Edits a description Absent on 29/04/2023 due to Case Competition to second student on the list.
• description 1 desc/: Removes existing description from first student on the list.

Listing a class to view: list

Lists all students in the class.

Format: list

Locating students by name: find

Finds students whose names contain any of the given keywords.

Format: find KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]

• The search is case-insensitive. e.g andrew will match Andrew
• The order of the keywords does not matter. e.g. Nic Faaheem will match Faaheem Nic
• Only the name is searched.
• Only full words will be matched e.g. andr will not match andrew
• Students matching at least one keyword will be returned (i.e. OR search). e.g. Tania Tan will return Tania Low, Tania Ooi

Examples:

• find andrew: Returns andrew and Andrew

• find nic faaheem returns nic, faaheem
  

• find John Doe returns John Doe, Johnathan Doe, Johnette Doe
  

  

Warning

If multiple search terms are used, all search terms will be matched with full words as well as incomplete words!

Clearing all entries: clear

Clears all entries from the StudentBook in a selected class.

Format: clear

Exiting the program: exit

Exits the program.

Format: exit

Saving the data

ClassBook and StudentBook data are saved automatically after any command that changes the data. There is no need to save manually. You can find the same in the data folder (which is going to be in the same directory as the application (i.e., .JAR file).

Editing the data file

ClassBook and StudentBook data are saved automatically as a JSON file [JAR file location]/data/classbook.json and [JAR file location]/data/classbook/[ClassName].json respectively. Advanced users are welcome to update data directly by editing that data file.

Coming Soon...

Clear All: Instead of manually using the rm command to remove each individual class, or the clear command to clear the selected StudentBook, this feature will clear all data (including ClassBooks and their respective StudentBooks), increasing convenience for users.

FAQ

Q: Unable to start the program?
A: Ensure that Java 11 or above is installed in your operating system. To check if you have Java 11 or above, open the Command Prompt and type in java -version. Once verified, navigate to the program's directory and type in java -jar MustVas.jar in the Command Prompt.

Q: How do I transfer my data to another Computer?
A: Install the app in the other computer and overwrite the empty data file it creates with the file that contains the data of your previous MustVas home folder.

Q: How can I see the class that I am on right now?
A: You can see the class that you have currently selected in the bottom left corner of the application (as shown below).

Q: How can I manually delete students/classes?
A: Find your data folder in your home directory where MustVas is stored. In this folder, you will see the classbook.json file that contains the list of courseCode, as well as another classbook folder that contains the individual .json files of the StudentBook, named after its class name.

• You may delete the individual StudentBook by deleting its individual .json file under the classbook folder. Do note that doing so will be akin to using the clear command on that class, effectively setting an empty StudentBook to be used.
• However, if you do intend to manually delete an entire class, do remember to delete both its courseCode field in classbook.json and its respective .json file in the classbook folder. Otherwise, deleting just the courseCode field in the classbook.json file would cause the same StudentBook to be used if a class of the same courseCode is created again (i.e. create c/class5 would reuse its old StudentBook with its old student contacts and not create a new empty StudentBook).

Q: How do I fix "This student already exists in the class" error?
A: This error is likely due to duplicate fields in PHONE, EMAIL or STUDENT_ID. Check that the new student to be added does not have these duplicate fields that are already present among students in your current class.

Known issues

1. When using multiple screens, if you move the application to a secondary screen, and later switch to using only the primary screen, the GUI will open off-screen. The remedy is to delete the preferences.json file created by the application before running the application again.
2. When using view after selecting a class, if you are viewing your list of classes after having selected a class, the StudentBook of the previously selected class is still considered selected (and will be displayed). Any commands entered to modify this class will take effect until another class is selected from the list of classes.

Command summary

Glossary

¹ Not to be confused with MustVas' list command.